As with most for-profit organizations, operators in the distributed device arena have long sought ways in which to increase their profits. One roadblock to maximizing profits in a distributed device environment that has persisted since its inception has been the difficulty in minimizing the downtime of malfunctioning assets. In large distributed device systems, a single operator may have assets or devices distributed about a large geographic region, each of which may be scheduled for maintenance visits days or weeks apart. In such systems, a remote device, e.g., a vending machine, remote point of sale (POS) devices, that typically turns its inventory between these regularly scheduled maintenance visits may result in significant losses to the operator should the remote device fail soon after a refill or maintenance visit.
In the past, notification of a malfunctioning remote device in a distributed asset system came from customer complaints or discovery during regularly scheduled maintenance visits. In recently developed distributed asset systems, some remote devices have been equipped with technology to generate a signal notifying an operator of the occurrence of one or more unsatisfactory operating conditions. One problem with both of the aforementioned systems is the lack of confidence in the accuracy of the respective malfunction reporting capabilities.
In a customer complaint system, it is not uncommon for the customer complaint to be resolved as a user error as opposed to a malfunctioning device upon inspection of the reportedly malfunctioning device by a technician. For example, a customer may complain of a remote device's refusal to accept paper currency as a malfunction when in fact the paper currency being used by the customer was not acceptable by the remote device. In systems where the remote devices are equipped with technology capable of generating a signal to notify an operator of a detected condition, it is not uncommon for such notifications to be erroneous both as to the condition identified and as to the actual existence of a malfunctioning at the remote device.